The Wolff family of Paramus, N.J., was eyeing the gathering clouds and debating whether to cancel a planned park trip when 6-year-old Leora piped up with an idea: 'Let's call Grandma. Her knees always know when it's going to rain!'
家住新泽西州帕拉默斯(Paramus)的沃尔夫(Wolff)一家一面看着积聚的云朵，一面争论着是否要取消游公园的计划，这时六岁大的莱奥拉(Leora)尖声尖气地说出了一个想法：“我们打电话给奶奶吧，她的膝盖总是知道什么时候要下雨。”
Leora's grandmother, Esther Polatsek, says she started being sensitive to the weather in her 20s, when a fracture in her foot would ache whenever a snowstorm approached. Now 66 and plagued by rheumatoid arthritis, Mrs. Polatsek says she suffers flare-ups whenever the weather is about to change.
天气状况会使某些人身体的疼痛加剧，涉及从头到脚的各个部位，究竟是何原因还是一个谜。本图介绍了美国多个地区的天气和疼痛发作情况。
'It's just uncanny. Sometimes it'll be gorgeous out, but I'll have this awful pain. And sure enough, the next morning it rains, ' she says. 'It may be just a few drops, but it makes my body crazy.'
莱奥拉的奶奶埃斯特·波洛切克(Esther Polatsek)说，她从20多岁的时候开始对天气敏感，每当暴风雪临近，她脚部的骨折处就会疼痛。现年66岁的波洛切克一直受到风湿性关节炎的困扰，她说每逢天气要发生变化，疼痛就会突然发作。
Do weather conditions really aggravate physical pain?
她说：“这真是不可思议。有时候天气好极了，我还是会遭受剧痛。当然，第二天早上就会下雨。有时可能只下了几滴雨，但它还是会让我的身体疼痛难忍。”
It is one of the longest running controversies in medicine.
天气状况真的会加重身体的疼痛吗？这是医学界引起争议时间最长的问题之一。
Hippocrates in 400 B.C. noticed that some illnesses were seasonal. The traditional Chinese medicine term for rheumatism (fengshi bing) translates to 'wind-damp disease.'
早在公元前400年，古希腊名医希波克拉底(Hippocrates)就注意到有些疾病是季节性的。传统中医中对应“rheumatism”的名称是风湿病，即与风寒和潮湿有关的疾病。
But modern scholars have gotten inconsistent results in studies that tried to match weather patterns to reported pain symptoms -- leading some to dismiss the connection as highly subjective or all in sufferers' minds.
当代学者试图将天气类型与患者陈述的疼痛症状进行匹配，但他们的研究得出了不尽相同的结果，因此有些学者认为，天气与疼痛的关联是极其主观的或者完全是患者的心理作用。
'People's beliefs about arthritis pain and the weather may tell more about the workings of the mind than of the body, ' concluded the late Stanford psychologist Amos Tversky in the mid-1990s, after comparing the pain reports of 18 rheumatoid-arthritis patients with local weather conditions for a year and finding no connection.
上世纪90年代中期，已故斯坦福大学(Stanford)心理学家埃默斯·特沃斯基(Amos Tversky)对18名风湿性关节炎患者的疼痛报告与当地的天气状况进行了一年的比对，但他并未发现它们存在关联。他得出结论称：“人们对关节炎疼痛及天气的看法或许更多反映的是心理而非身体所起的作用。”
Still, other studies have linked changes in temperature, humidity or barometric pressure to worsening pain from rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, as well as headaches, tooth aches, jaw pain, scar pain, low-back pain, pelvic pain, fibromyalgia, trigeminal neuralgia (a searing pain in the face), gout and phantom-limb pain.
然而，也有其他研究认为，气温、湿度或气压的变化与风湿性关节炎、骨关节炎以及头疼、牙疼、下颚疼痛、伤疤疼痛、盆腔痛、纤维肌痛、三叉神经痛（面部的一种灼痛）、痛风以及幻肢痛等疼痛加剧存在关联。
Scientists don't understand all the mechanisms involved in weather-related pain, but one leading theory holds that the falling barometric pressure that frequently precedes a storm alters the pressure inside joints. Those connections between bones, held together with tendons and ligaments, are surrounded and cushioned by sacs of fluid and trapped gasses.
科研人员并不了解与天气相关的疼痛所涉及的全部原理，但一种主流理论认为，气压常常在风暴前下降，这改变了关节内的压力。这些由肌腱和韧带结合在一起的骨与骨的结合物，被一团团的流动气体和积存气体环绕，起到缓和冲击的作用。
'Think of a balloon that has as much air pressure on the outside pushing in as on the inside pushing out, ' says Robert Jamison, a professor of anesthesia and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. As the outside pressure drops, the balloon -- or joint -- expands, pressing against surrounding nerves and other tissues. 'That's probably the effect that people are feeling, particularly if those nerves are irritated in the first place, ' Dr. Jamison says.
哈佛医学院(Harvard Medical School)麻醉学与精神病学教授罗伯特·贾米森(Robert Jamison)称：“设想一下一个向内压迫的外部气压与向外推出的内部气压相当的气球。”当外部气压下降，气球（或者说关节）就会膨胀，从而压迫到周围的神经和其他组织。杰米森博士说：“这大概就是人们感受到的影响，特别是如果那些神经本来就已经受到刺激的话。”
Not everyone with arthritis has weather-related pain, says Patience White, a rheumatologist at George Washington University School of Medicine and a vice president of the Arthritis Foundation. 'It's much more common in people with some sort of effusion, ' an abnormal buildup of fluid in or around a joint that frequently occurs with inflammation.
乔治·华盛顿大学医学院(George Washington University School of Medicine)风湿病学家、美国关节炎基金会(Arthritis Foundation)副主席佩兴丝·怀特(Patience White)称，并不是每个关节炎患者的身体都会出现与天气有关的疼痛。她说：“它在身体有某种积液的人群中更常见。”这种在关节内或关节周围积聚的超过正常量的液体通常因炎症产生。
Many patients swear that certain weather conditions exacerbate their pain. Consequently, orthopedists, rheumatologists, neurologists, family physicians, chiropractors, physical therapists -- even personal trainers -- report an increase in grousing among their clients when the temperature drops or a storm approaches.
许多患者肯定地说，某些天气状况会加剧他们的疼痛。由此一来，骨科医生、风湿病学家、精神病学家、家庭医生、脊椎指压治疗师、物理治疗师──甚至是私人教练──也声称，在气温下降或风暴临近时，他们的病人或者客户抱怨有所增加。
'I can tell you emphatically there are certain days where practically every patient complains of increased pain, ' says Aviva Wolff, an occupational therapist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, and Mrs. Polatsek's daughter. 'The more dramatic the weather change, the more obvious it is.'
波洛切克的女儿、纽约市特殊外科手术医院(Hospital for Special Surgery)的职业理疗师阿维娃·沃尔夫(Aviva Wolff)说：“我可以肯定地告诉你，在某些日子里，几乎每位病人都会抱怨疼痛加剧。天气变化得越剧烈，疼痛就越明显。”
Both the Weather Channel and AccuWeather have indexes on their websites that calculate the likelihood of aches and pains across the country, based on barometric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind. Changes in those conditions tend to affect joints even more than current conditions do, says AccuWeather meteorologist Michael Steinberg, which is why the Arthritis Index shows more risk the day before a storm or a sharp drop in temperature is forecast.
天气频道(Weather Channel)与AccuWeather的网站均有根据气压、温度、湿度和风力计算身体疼痛概率的指数。AccuWeather的气象学家迈克尔·斯坦伯格(Michael Steinberg)指出，这些状况的变化往往要比当前的天气状况对关节的影响更大，所以在预报有风暴或气温急剧下降的日子的前一天，关节炎指数显示的疼痛风险更高。
Some sufferers say their joints can be more accurate than meteorologists. Rheumatoid-arthritis sufferer Bill Balderaz, 38, president of a digital-marketing firm in Columbus, Ohio, recalls feeling 'the worst arthritis pain I've ever had -- I could barely move' one day last year, even though it was sunny and clear. By midafternoon, a land-based hurricane known as a derecho with 80 mile-per-hour winds unexpectedly buffeted Ohio and three other states, traveling 600 miles in 10 hours and knocking out power for 10 days. 'The storm caught everyone off guard. It was clear one minute and then the skies opened up, ' Mr. Balderaz says.
有些患者称，他们的关节比气象学家还要精确。今年38岁、担任俄亥俄州哥伦布市某数字营销公司总裁的比尔·巴尔德拉兹(Bill Balderaz)也患有风湿性关节炎。他回忆起在去年的某一天，尽管阳光明媚、天气晴朗，他却感受到了“我经历过的最严重的关节炎疼痛──我几乎动弹不得”。到了当天下午，风速达每小时80英里（约合128公里）、被称为破坏性直风的陆地飓风出人意料地袭击了俄亥俄和其他三个州，在10小时中飞驰了600英里（约合965公里），并且导致电力中断了10天时间。巴尔德拉兹说：“那次风暴让所有人措手不及。这一刻还是天空晴朗，接下来天气马上就变了。”
Cold weather seems to raise the risk of stroke, heart attacks and sudden cardiac death, some research shows. Heart-attack risk rose 7% for every 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) drop in temperature, according to a study of nearly 16, 000 patients in Belgium, presented at the European Society of Cardiology last month. British researchers studying years of data on implanted defibrillators found that the risk of ventricular arrhythmia -- an abnormal heart rhythm that can lead to sudden death -- rose 1.2% for every 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit drop, according to a study in the International Journal of Biometerology last month.
有些研究表明，寒冷天气似乎会加大中风、心脏病和心源性猝死的风险。比利时一项涉及近16,000名患者、于九月份在欧洲心脏病学会(European Society of Cardiology)提交的研究显示，气温每下降摄氏10度，心脏病的风险就会上升7%。于九月份发表在《国际生物气象学杂志》(International Journal of Biometerology)的研究指出，对植入式心脏除颤器的数据进行了多年研究的英国研究人员发现，气温每下降华氏1.8度，室性心律失常（可引发猝死的非正常心率）的风险就会上升1.2%。
Once blamed on physically demanding tasks like shoveling snow, the increased heart risk due to cold may be due to thickening blood and constricting blood vessels, researchers think.
在过去，人们往往将寒冷天气里心脏病发病风险的加大归咎于铲雪等重体力活动，但研究人员认为，这其实可能是因为寒冷使血液变得更加粘稠并导致血管收缩。
And rising humidity may cause joints to swell and stiffen. In fact, tendons, ligaments, muscles, bones and other tissues all have varying densities, so they may expand or contract in different ways in changing conditions, Dr. Jamison says.
湿度上升可能会导致关节肿胀和僵硬。贾米森博士说，实际上，肌腱、韧带、肌肉、骨骼和其他组织的密度都各不相同，所以它们在天气状况变化时的肿胀或收缩程度或许会不同。
In people with chronic inflammation from arthritis or past injuries, even slight irritations due to the weather can aggravate sensory nerve cells, known as nociceptors, that relay pain signals to the brain. That may explain why some people with neuropathic pain and phantom-limb pain also report weather-related flare-ups.
对于因关节炎或旧伤而导致慢性炎症的人，即使是天气引发的轻微炎症也会刺激感觉神经细胞，即向大脑传递疼痛信号的疼痛感受器。这或许可以解释为什么有些患神经性疼痛和幻肢疼痛的人也说身体会因天气变化而疼痛。
'Fibromyalgia patients seem to be the most sensitive, ' says Susan Goodman, a rheumatologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery. She also notes that while some people seem to be extremely sensitive to weather, others with similar conditions aren't, for reasons that aren't clear. That may explain why many studies find no clear association, she says.
特殊外科手术医院的风湿病学家苏珊·古德曼(Susan Goodman)称：“纤维性肌痛患者似乎是最敏感的。”她还指出，虽然有些人似乎对天气极为敏感，但另外一些身体状况相似的人却并不如此，其中的原因尚不明确。她认为，这可能解释了为什么许多研究并没有发现天气变化与疼痛存在明确关联。
Some weather conditions seem to relieve pain. In one study, the warm, high-pressure Chinook winds common to western Canada lessened patients' neuropathic pain, the kind brought on by disease or injury. For other patients, the same climate increased migraines and sinus headaches.
某些天气状况似乎会缓解疼痛。某项研究发现，加拿大西部常常刮起的温暖的高压切努克风减轻了患者因疾病或受伤出现的神经性疼痛。对其他患者来说，同样的气候则会加剧偏头痛和窦性头痛。
Some pain sufferers say they feel better in warm, dry climates where weather conditions seldom change. When she went to Israel in the 1990s, 'I felt like I was 20 years younger when I stepped off the plane, ' says Mrs. Polatsek, the rheumatoid-arthritis patient.
有些遭受疼痛困扰的人说，他们在天气较少变化的温暖干燥的气候中觉得更舒适。患有风湿性关节炎的波洛切克说，在90年代去以色列时，“我在走下飞机的那一刻感觉自己年轻了20岁。”
But studies haven't consistently borne out the benefits of one climate over another. 'There really is no place in the U.S. where people report more or less weather-related pain, ' says Dr. Jamison. He surveyed 557 arthritis sufferers in four cities in 1995 and found that more than 60% believed the weather affected their pain -- regardless of whether they lived in San Diego, Boston, Nashville, Tenn., or Worcester, Mass.
然而，各项研究并未一致证实某种气候会比另一种气候更好。贾米森博士说：“在美国，没有一个地方的人反映说，当地因天气引发疼痛的人数比别的地方多或者少。”1995年，他在四个城市调查了557名关节炎患者，他发现有超过60%的患者──无论他们住在 地亚哥、波士顿、田纳西的纳什维尔或是马萨诸塞的伍斯特(Worcester)──都认为天气会影响他们的疼痛。
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